Let's be clear here, we are reviewing a TV that costs well over $1,000. Yet so many people are not holding it to that standard. Wait until Black Friday. This television does a lot right, but for the money it is not worth it. The X950G has blooming that destroys dark room viewing, unless you dim your tv substantially(Which greatly darkens the image, more than normal, especiallyin cinema mode.), and while the overall picture may be pretty fantastic, it's still not beating TVs from 2017 like the X900E, which this was going to replace.
What's worse, is that Sony still forces you to accept Google terms of service, before even allowing you to use the product you just paid out all this money for. I don't know about you but I don't like to be forced into submit before, I'm even able to use the product I just invested $1,299 on. This is basically one of those TVs where, if you don't agree with Google's terms, you simply aren't allowed to use it...not even offline! A Disgusting practice.
Now when we look at the Smart features it's pretty cool, you can say things like Google turn on TV, and Google turn off TV, and almost like magic the TV turns on and off. This is really cool. Like James Bond tech cool. That being said, the picture quality has a ways to go. Now to be fair, you can get pretty Inky black levels, when there is high contrast did elements on the screen, or when you dim the backlight DRAMATICALLY. That being said the TV has a problem with glitching out. Every time I try to watch YouTube using the internal application, it would zoom in to nearly 100% of the screen, cropping out the entirety of the picture. This makes watching TV virtually impossible.
Now if you don't watch YouTube this isn't a big deal, but if you're like me and you're always on it, this is a deal-breaker. What's even worse, is that you've lost picture modes that you had last year, in addition to losing the ability to customize your cinemotion. This basically means you have less ability to control important aspects of picture quality and motion, leading to a really inconsistent experience. The x900f had all of these features, and is cheaper. So make no mistake you are getting scaled back on big-time. Sony may dress it up in a nice metallic build, wrapped in some nice smart features, but overall this television is a downgrade to increase sony oled sales. The X1 ultimate chip is almost a tease for sony, because the black levels are so bad, you'll wanna upgrade as soon as something with better black levels in the same price point comes out.
I find that when using this television, I couldn't help but notice if only the black levels were better this might actually be a television that could be worth my time. Simply put if you're somebody that likes to watch TV in a dark room, at reasonable levels of screen brightness, you're not going to enjoy this thing; If you're somebody that watches TV in a bright living room you're going to have solutely love this thing. That being said the colors are not quite as vibrant as qled from Samsung or Vizio at the moment, so those are better for color. Simply put if you have this kind of money to throw away, on a mediocre tv be my guest, as for Me I'll be looking for another product.
This tv comes so close, but yet so far away from what I'm looking for. And the worst part of all, is that it's completely on purpose to push bravia oled. Funny how my 2017 full array looks nothing like this, but magically all the tvs after Sony launched the a1e, their full array line has been getting worse and worse. I'm speaking with my wallet and I'm not going to be keeping this one. In summary, Too many glitches, forcing consumers to comply with Google even offline, downgraded features, lack of high frame-rate support, and a myriad of other problems makes the X950G a barely passable TV. For me though it's completely unpassable, and I would not be buying this one. Best of luck to all of those who end up with this TV.
| Brand Name | Sony |
|---|---|
| Item Weight | 52.9 pounds |
| Product Dimensions | 35.6 x 13.1 x 57 inches |
| California residents | Click here for Proposition 65 warning |
| Item model number | XBR65X950G |
| Batteries | 2 AAA batteries required. (included) |
| Color Name | Black |
